7.4.12

Family Fun: Kool-Easter-Eggs

Is your family decorating eggs this Easter? Pretty much every year we test out a new idea for dyeing. This one smelled the yummiest!

Step 1: Ready your Eggs and Dyes

I was so excited to find a simple way to colour the eggs (on Pinterest, of course). Kool-Aid! It's from the blog, "Hey! Jen Renee" (click the image below to visit and get the simple instructions):

Source: Jen Renee

We decided that hollowing out the eggs would be the best choice for us, vs hard boiling.

Sure, you can eat the hard boiled eggs after they are decorated, but should you? If you normally display your beautiful, colourful eggs in the fridge. Go for it. But who does that? Normally we wouldn't eat an egg that had been left out on the counter for a bunch of days. The food safety training in me would not let anyone I love chow down on a feast of hard-boiled egg that had been left out that long.

Yep, food safety training sucks the fun out of a lot of stuff.

Ed is a little light headed from blowing out the eggs. He did 11; I did 1. (It's so much harder than it looks!)What we did was blow the eggs into two containers: one with 4 eggs and one with 8. We have Crustless Quiche planned for Saturday and French Toast with Peach Sauce planned for Easter Sunday. Ooooh, so frugal we are! (I have gotten into a speak-like-Yoda-habit. Apologies.)

Step 2: Ready your Battleground Easter Crafting Area

We find liquid-y crafts require the patience of...Yoda (on the brain he is today).Preparation is key to parental patience. Cover every surface you do not want dyed pastel. We used a vinyl table cloth that we haul out for BBQs and risky crafts.

Ed also fashioned a couple of egg dunkers out of pieces of coat hangers. When the eggs are hollow, these do-dads are less handy, basically the kids used them to push the eggs under the dye, which could be done with just about any tool, no fancy hanger bending required.

We got out rubber bands and stickers and crayons for the kids' decorating whims.

Step 3: It's Time to Dye

Jen Renee's eggs turned out beautifully. I don't know how to have a craft with kids be both fun and turn out beautifully. It seems, most times we need to pick one objective or the other. We consistently choose fun. Our eggs are beautiful to the little blue eyes of our children (and their friend who joined us for the festivity).

Step 4: Display

I had a gorgeous idea planned. It was subtle and natural. The effect would have been elegant.Once again, fun won over beauty. Our eggs soon got names (Meadow, Mars, Lava and Sea are pictured above) and a house made of an egg carton that includes beds, a bathtub and toilet. Of course, there's a car.

The beauty of their creativity matters so much more than a photogenic decoration.

Happy Easter!

Is dyeing eggs part of your Easter fun? What's your favourite way to dye them?